tigertail777 good news. I'll go look at your photos when I finish here. I wouldn't melt clay in any appliance where I would prepare food. Too many toxins. I melt the clay in that little white pot you can see on the table. I wear a face mask because of the fumes.

littlegiles every day is wonderful because I have Dan. I hope your weekend is good, no you can't have Dan. I hope you box arrives soon.

MadDogMike I just posted on your event page favorite photos page. You are a star. I hope to bisque by lying them on their sides on two shelves. I don't yet know if I can do two shelves for glazing.

When you pour your mold, don't make the walls so thick. GROG originally was pouring thick walls like you, but now makes them thinner, and they still work fine. Otherwise, your mold is going to be so huge, poor Dan is going to get a hernia lifting them.

Also, next time you have photo reference or a drawing for what you want to sculpt, blow it up to the size you want the sculpt to be, and you can better control how large or small the final sculpt will be and you can compare the proportions easier to make the sculpt more accurate.

GROG Dan thanks you for reminding me about wall thickness on the molds. I'll try. This will be doozy even with thin walls.
I've used the photo trick a few times, like with Kinny's portrait. I agree it's one of the best ways to get it right. I did plan this one to be huge. If it weren't it would be like 100 other tiki mugs.

You sure did an excellent job on the monkey mug. He has a great expression on his face.

WaikikianMoeKele I hope you are feeling better. I can warm little bits of that hard clay with a heat lamp and then shape it with a tool. So this works well for shaping.

Big Kahuna Dan likes to think of himself as the looniest of the loonies.

littlegiles its fun to see a face forming. Soon he'll be a real tiki.

Big Kahuna see below for proof that Jon is hang10tiki.

littlegiles how about little lost tiki? Check out photos of him and Big Toe.

MadDogMike in a good way.

hang10tiki in a very good way.

We had a party for Dan's sisters family on Saturday. It was fun that the kids showed up with their bowls from Christmas. Especially because I'd made them matching mugs.
I made deviled eggs. The reason I'm showing you these is because last night I caught Dan with a couple of "deviled egg" sandwiches from the leftovers.
He said, "boy were these easy to make". I don't think I would have thought of this. Have any of you ever done this with left over deviled eggs?

Progress Report:

I worked on the heads all day yesterday and into the night. I started by brushing the teeth to smear the black glaze.

Next I painted the teeth leaving lots of decay. Then I painted the white slash on the eyes.

I did all 22 heads.

Now it was time to start on the pink parts. First the hair.

Next the lips, tongue and the runs from the top of the mug.

At 6 PM I had completed these steps on 6 mugs.

After dinner I moved into the family room to watch The Great Race with Dan and decided to continue glazing. Do I look sleepy and tired? I continued working until late last night and I think I got another 6 glazed.

I'll be back at it today. I'm going as fast as I can and they still take forever. One day they will be done.